Whatever Happened to Car Ashtrays?

When was the last time you worked on a new car that came equipped with a stock lighter and ashtray? If you’re anything like me, you don’t even know. That’s because automakers started to silently phase them out sometime in the mid 90’s. By the 2000’s, most cars only offered them as optional features. Today, many cars don’t even do that.

In the course of researching why that is, I came across two articles that are definitely worth a read.

Honda and other manufacturers are designing ashtrays and lighters out of many new models, both to please consumers and cut costs. […]

“You respond to consumer demand,” said Art Garner, a spokesman for American Honda Motor Col, the Torrance, Calif., subsidiary of the Japanese manufacturer. “Consumers say, ‘I don’t need an ashtray. What I would like is a little storage place here. I don’t need a lighter. What I would like is a place to plug in my cell phone.’”

Eliminating lighters and ashtrays as standard equipment on millions of cars also saves money for automakers, most who now sell optional “smoker’s packages” for $15 to $100 for items once included with every new car. […]

The changes reflect a continuing evolution in dashboards and interiors, said Jeffrey Rose, vice president of technology at Textron Automotive Co., a Troy, Mich., company that is one of the leading providers of interior components for new cars.

Travelers in the 1950s and ‘60s were never far from an ashtray – many cars came with both lighters and ashtrays fitted into every door. But that was before the arrival of multiple cup holders and storage spaces, switches for power windows and door locks, outlets for cell phones and amenities like garage-door openers fitted into sun visors.

Australia’s The Daily Telegraph, however, attributes the disappearance of cabin lighters and ashtrays to a better social and legal understanding of the health risks associated with smoking, as well as a clamp down on distracted driving. In a 2007 article titled “No Ash Therefore No Tray“, the newspaper reported:

The phasing out of cigarette lighters and ashtrays is expected to pick up pace as rules tighten around the world on smoking while driving.

Since the introduction of Queensland’s smokefree workplaces in 2002, there has been a ban on smoking in work vehicles when more than one person is present.

In July, Health Minister Stephen Robertson foreshadowed a prohibition on smoking in cars carrying children during the review of tobacco legislation expected to start soon.

But Queensland is not alone in a clamp down on smoke-driving.

Earlier this month, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill to come into effect in January banning anyone smoking in a car with a person under the age of 18 present. The fine is $US200.

Cyprus and three other US states have similar bans, while several countries including Ireland and South Africa plan to introduce the smokefree cars with children reform.

South Australia implemented a ban on smoke-driving while children are present in May and since then, police have issued 29 on-the-spot fines and 11 cautions.

Tasmania will introduce the ban in January and NSW has flagged smoke-free cars carrying children as the next area of reform. But the issue is not just a matter of health.

Last month, the new UK Highway Code declared offenders could be charged with driving without due care and attention and New Delhi has a total ban on smoking while driving as a road safety driver-distraction issue.

Personally, I like the fact that cars no longer come equipped with lighters and ashtrays. With all that we know about the dangers of second-hand smoke, I find it irresponsible of folks to smoke in cars that carry passengers who don’t.

There is one major downside though: without ashtrays, I often find myself having to leave screws and clips on a car’s floor where they either get lost or stepped on.

Good idea-cut costs and let buyers make their own choices.Wanna talk about distractions, how about kids in the car!Not to mention audio systems, GPS, and fiddling around with that drive-thru piping hot coffee in the cup holder.(What a distraction when spilled in the lap!) Oh yeah, about that second hand smoke.Let’s be clear on what that “new car smell” is all about in four words,toxic carcinogenic off gassing.(see Vinyl chloride.com,for starters)Maybe it’s safest for all if we sit in metal seats on the public transportation?

So ashtrays on your door is more important than air bags along with the other items you mentioned. You got your priorities screwed up. They obviously cut prices by getting rid of something that has no meaningful use

So you have a right to smoke around someone who chooses not to fill their lungs up with smoke? Do you know a non smoker is just as likely to get cancer from a smoker? Duh wtf is wrong with you.? YOU DONT HAVE THE RIGHT TO PUT SOMEONES LIFE IN DANGER. That should be considered murder or attempted murder. PEOPLE DIE FROM CIGARETTES DUMMY

I have to wonder about smoking in cars, having driven a work colleague’s – who was a smoker – car which overall smelt like an ashtray, or what a pub here in NZ was like prior to the public bar smoking ban here.

As for cars not catering for smokers, my 2005 Mitsubishi 380 (an Australian version of the 9th gen Mitsubishi Galant) does not have any ashtray, nor is there provision for them (apart from if a cupholder was used). There is no cigarette lighter, a 12v power outlet is used instead.

As an environmentalist, I lament the loss of ashtrays in cars because it encourages smokers to toss their butts out the window.

Cigarette filters are made from thousands of plastic fibers smushed together. This means that all the nasty chemicals in the cigarette get absorbed into the fibers, then leech into the ground and our water supply once they are discarded as litter. Fish and other wildlife eat these little tiny fibers unwittingly, and the chemicals get in to their systems- then we eat the fish. Yeah, ew. No. (The same problem occurs with plastic microbeads in facial scrubs. These tiny plastic fibers, whether they come from degrading plastic bags or cigarettes or what have you, are hard to filter out in water treatment plants. They resemble the food of small fish, which are eaten by larger fish, which are eaten by us.)

I’m an environmentalist myself and work in the Environmental Health field. Not only can the wildlife choke on these butts, but the butts that people toss out their windows are rinsed off the roads by each rain event through storm sewers then to creeks,streams and lakes where people (kids) swim. All those chemicals right into the waterways.

I saw a classic Cadillac (1948) at the car repair shop. It had 6 (six) ashtrays, with lighters for each of them. And this car also had a full bar in what otherwise would have been a very large glove compartment. People who could afford those cars were expected to be smoking and sometimes also drinking. It must have been a more civilized time.

once around the country trip without an ashtray. great trip. flicked hundreds of butts out the window, seems that fires followed us all the way up the California Coast. I wonder why? Socially acceptable to remove ashtrays for your health. hope its worth the pollution caused my forest fires. LOL

If you think about it the insurance companies had something to do with it. If you smoked your rates were higher. So they took the ashtrays out because it was a distraction while you were driving.But they
Left the lighter plug there so you could keep your phone plugged in. Now ask your self! Which is the bigger distraction!!!!

I agree that cars should have ashtrays to avoid butts out the winsow
I still wonder why smokers think it is acceptable to litter with their butts. They should put something like a soda can in the cup holder to hold ashes and butts.

Very well said. I’m a smoker and removing ashtrays in cars hasn’t made me quite.
I’m 50 years old and can take care of my health and the choices associated with it. Not having ashtrays in car make smoker thow their butts out the window which is too me far worst because of wildfire and the environment.

I see SO many cigarette butts on the ground these days, including in parking lots. I live where it gets real windy, so those dropped butts probably were all dropped in the last 24 hours. The other day I saw someone in a car in a parking lot drop a butt out her window, and to me that’s not much different than dropping a candy or burger wrapper out the window. When she got out, I saw it was a store employee! I complained to store management and heard back that’s she’s going to buy a cigarette holder for her car. What is it with smokers that they think just dropping a butt on the ground is okay?!?!?

Especially if ya live where the salt has damaged a gas tank or line not such a good idea or even living in a state where gaskets have gone bad think it’s all flammable insurances will lose more customers then gaining especially if they pass no smoking for a driver